Progress 09/01/07 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Presentation to the Geographic System in Fisheries meeting in New Zealand in August 2011 by Dr. Dale Kiefer: demonstration of model real time before the audience Invited Plenary presentation to the annual Aquaculture Canada Meeting in Quebec City Canada, April 2011 by Dr. Jack Rensel. Hour long keynote address that featured AquaModel and our SBIR project as an example of the future for aquaculture planning Presentation to World Aquaculture Society in March 2010 by Dr. Jack Rensel as invited speaker in the open ocean aquaculture session to report progress in our SBIR sponsored fish physiology and modeling work. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Dale Kiefer, President of System Science Applications and Professor at University of Southern California. Mr. Frank O'Brien, Software engineer for System Science Applications Dr. Jack Rensel, Senior Scientist for System Science Applications TARGET AUDIENCES: Government resource management agencies worldwide Seafood Industry Aquaculture Industry Non Governmental Organizations PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
We have been actively discussing the use of our software with leaders of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Aquaculture Division. We anticipate being invited to Washington D.C. for a meeting soon to demonstrate the software's capability. We are also actively discussing the use of the model for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans with leaders. There is also growing awareness of our software's capability that we feel can be marketed to environmental NGOs and we have made recent contacts in that regard. The advances made in our software allowed us to develop a regional-wide, multiple fish farm modeling system that is attractive to the agencies as an ocean management tool. With support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we have helped to advance this industry by completing development of AquaModel, software that accurately predicts the environmental impacts and operations of fish farms both nearshore and in the open ocean. AquaModel is now available to assist industry and government to predict and meet proposed rules and performance standards and to provide quick access to information needed for permitting and planning. AquaModel provides a home for data used in these and related pursuits, the tools to visualize and communicate this information, and a comprehensive model to simulate operations and environmental impact of operations. Presently, there are no other comprehensive software systems to accomplish all these tasks. The updated version of AquaModel provides mapping and modeling tools required by regulators and farm operators to manage sustainable mariculture development in coastal and offshore waters. Using this technology we have developed a mariculture information system for Hawai'i's Department of Agriculture that focuses on the main island. This is a region where the growth of open water mariculture is imminent. During this project we have completed all six of the tasks we identified in our Phase II proposal. 1. We developed an advanced visualization of a broad-scale (entire coastline), 3-dimensional coastal flow and built an interface to link this visualization in AquaModel to outputs from coastal circulation models. 2. We added contouring and statistics routines into AquaModel in order to better summarize the environmental impact of farm operations. 3. We wrote computer code to accelerate simulations in order to improve our ability to analyze the impact of sediment waste deposition in waters where waste accumulation and the response of the benthic community are slow. 4. We completed a greatly improved benthic dynamics subroutine and incorporated it into AquaModel. 5. We completed physiological studies of a culturally and commercially important species (moi, Polydactylus sexfilis) that has been the principal species cultivated in Hawai'ian net pens. We also conducted similar studies with cobia (Rachycentron canadum) as this species is growing in importance worldwide in tropical seas. 6. We created an updated version of AquaModel and incorporated the Hawai'i Department of Agriculture GIS information system into our software.
Publications
- Two publications in manuscript form, not complete yet. 2011
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Progress 09/01/07 to 08/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The development of open ocean marine aquaculture (mariculture) farms within the United States Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) offers the promise of profitable commercialization with low risk to the environment and wild fish stocks. With support from the Department of Agriculture, we will help advance this industry by completing development of AquaModel, software that will accurately predict the environmental impacts and operations of fish farms both onshore and in the open ocean. AquaModel can assist both the industry and government to predict and meet proposed rules or performance standards and provide quick access to information needed for permitting and planning. Aquamodel provides a home for data, the tools to visualize and communicate this information, and a comprehensive model to simulate operations and environmental impact of operations. Presently, there are no other comprehensive software systems to accomplish all these tasks. When completed AquaModel will provide mapping and modeling tools required by regulators and farm operators to manage sustainable mariculture development in coastal and offshore waters. We will apply our technology to develop for Hawaii's Department of Agriculture a mariculture information system for the south coast of Oahu, Hawaii. This is a region where the growth of open water mariculture is imminent. During the first year of our project we have completed 4 and nearly completed a 5th task of the 6 tasks we identified in our Phase II proposal. 1. We developed an advanced visualization of a broad-scale (entire coastline), 3-dimensional coastal flow and built a interface to link this visualization in AquaModel to outputs from coastal circulation models 2. We added contouring and statistics routines into AquaModel in order to better summarize the environmental impact of farm operations. 3. We wrote computer code to accelerate simulations in order to improve our ability to analyze the impact of sediment waste deposition in waters where waste accumulation and the response of the benthic community is slow. 4. We have completed a benthic dynamics subroutine and incorporated it into AquaModel. 5. We have completed about a third of the physiological studies of new commercial species (moi, Hawaiian yellow tail, and cobia) that are or will soon be under cultivation in Hawaii, 6. Use the up-dated version of AquaModel to develop the O'ahu south coast (Mamala Bay and approaches) mariculture information system. We have encountered few problems with this work, and foresee no new problems. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
1. We have built an interface to incorporate output from complex coastal circulation models into AquaModel, drive the AquaModel simulations, and display the results. In order to simulate operations and environmental impact we have linked AquaModel to output from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's model of circulation in this region. The output is a continuous, 3-dimensional flow field that is output at a time step of 6 hours. Outputs include current velocity, temperature, and salinity. 2. We have added the capability to contour in user-selected bins any of the variables that are calculated during simulations. This provides the user the ability to view patterns in the distribution of farm wastes by false color raster images, or in the case of overlaying maps of two variable, view maps containing both contours and images. 3. We have increased the speed of computations by re-designing AquaModel to run three types of simulations, transport and ecological transformations of both dissolved and particulate wastes, transport and ecological fate of the dissolved wastes alone, and ecological fate within the sediments of the particulate wastes. 4. The benthic routine has been completed, and now provides the most detailed and comprehensive description of the fate of uneaten feed and fish feces deposited in the sediments beneath the farms. This new routine greatly expands this description to include changes in the relative abundance of aerobic and anaerobic organisms, the remineralization of waste carbon by anaerobic organisms that respire sulfate, and the production of hydrogen sulfide by the anaerobes. Hydrogen sulfide is of course toxic, and it is a key indicator of excess loading by farms. 5. We have begun laboratory studies on the growth and metabolic activity of three species that are candidates for large open water commercial farming in Hawaii. These species are new to American Mariculture and thus little is know about their physiology and will provide information necessary to run simulations of operations and environmental impact for the growing mariculture industry in Hawaii. The focus of this work is determination of basal (resting) and active respiration, excretion rates of ammonia, urea and total N, fecal settling rates and N and C digestibility and composition of fecal matter. 6. We will soon meet with marine scientists, developers, and regulators to define user needs for setting standards for licensing new farms. These meetings will then direct our development of an offshore information system for fish farms that will be delivered to the Hawaiian Department of Agriculture. Critical information on the growth and metabolic characteristics of the three of the most commercially promising species will allow us to calibrate the model and apply it to broad regions of the U.S. and overseas. The model will allow assessment of cumulative effects of many farms within a broad area by both Government agencies and farmers.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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